内容摘要：The party's deputy leader Richard Tice said the result was a "massive boost" going into the May 2026 vote.

The party's deputy leader Richard Tice said the result was a "massive boost" going into the May 2026 vote.

Little is known about the guest house itself, but descendants claim it stood just steps from the Masjid al-Haram, with 22 rooms and several halls spread over 1.5 acres.According to family lore, Keyi shipped wood from Malabar to build it and appointed a Malabari manager to run it - an ambitious gesture, though not unusual for the time.

Saudi Arabia was a relatively poor country back then - the discovery of its massive oil fields still a few decades away.The Hajj pilgrimage and the city's importance in Islam meant that Indian Muslims often donated money or built infrastructure for Indian pilgrims there.In his 2014 book, Mecca: The Sacred City, historian Ziauddin Sardar notes that during the second half of the 18th Century, the city had acquired a distinctively Indian character with its economy and financial well-being dependent on Indian Muslims.

"Almost 20% of the city's inhabitants, the largest single majority, were now of Indian origins – people from Gujarat, Punjab, Kashmir and Deccan, all collectively known locally as the Hindis," Sardar wrote.As Saudi Arabia's oil wealth surged in the 20th century, sweeping development projects reshaped Mecca. Keyi Rubath was demolished three times, the final time in the early 1970s.

That's when the confusion around compensation appears to have started.

According to BM Jamal, former secretary of India's Central Waqf Council, the Indian consulate in Jeddah wrote to the government back then, seeking details of Mayankutty Keyi's legal heir.The established parties acknowledge that concerns about immigration featured in this by-election in a way they have not before.

The biggest losers in Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse are the Conservatives who finished a distant fourth and appear to be struggling to counter the rise of Reform.Defeat here is a significant setback for the Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay and offers no encouragement to Kemi Badenoch and the UK party.

This is also not a victory that Sir Keir Starmer can really claim as his own.Labour said in recent days that they had identified enough support to beat the SNP and it seems a successful ground operation got those voters to turnout.